Back where I come from

I don't know if any of my American friends read this blog, but if you are reading.. just carry on..

Well, back where I come from, I find my streets crowded with people, cars and my roads are always buzzing with activity, whatever be the time of the day. Here in Buffalo- its a surprise to see ten people walking on the road at any point of time. I always find it very odd not to find too many people on the roads, because my eyes are used to it and also used to looking for known faces where ever I go.

To buy a chocolate, I needn't walk a kilometer down a so called main road. All I need to do is pop down the stairs, buy it and get back home. Cars don't stop by for pedestrians and people keep bumping into each other. Signals do change and people don't forget to break rules.

At the fag end of each month, cops stand at almost every road, waiting for unsuspecting prey to cross their path and at the end of the day, they are the rajas. Back home, I didn't think twice about spending on anything, now things are such that, the thought of spending doesn't occur that often. Back home- I agree- I didn't walk much, but here, the number eleven bus's my main mode of transport.

I hardly used to see a cop having a gun on his person, but here, there's not a single cop who doesn't have a gun. Back home, proper queues are rarely ever seen, while there's a queue for everything here.

Back home- I could watch TV, here I don't have a TV. I used to watch a movie at Satyam, almost every weekend or atleast twice a month- here, I watch a movie that I ve watched a thousand times over.

Pani puri and Bhel puri used to be an item, which I could eat at will, now- merely seeing those items at the India store, brings back memories of having those stuff at chat stalls all over the city. I used to ask dad to change the old zen for a new car, now merely seeing my old zen, would certainly make me feel happy.

I used to sympathise with many of my friends who used to stay away from home, as they miss their mother's cooking. Now I have some of my friends who sympathise with me for that. Back home, staying awake till 1 am in the night would mean that I would still mean that I wake up by 8 am in the morning, but here, I wake up only by around 12 pm.

I had everything at my disposal at home, here I have nothing at my disposal. It s a cycle of life mates, whenever you have something, you don't realise its value and when you are away from it, you realise it's value many fold. When I asked one of my friends if he had ever been tipped by a customer at the food court where he works, he sorely recollects, never having tipped any waiter at any hotel that he went to, and now he hardly gets any tips.

But really, whenever I see something written in Tamil or Hindi, really- I get so excited, because, it's not everyday that I get to see something like that here. However, living in a maximum Indian area of Buffalo, I'm happy that I atleast get to speak in Tamil and Hindi rather than ending having to learn chinese and learning to catch the American accent, which does take sometime to understand.

Its been 2 months since I landed up here, but I'm still to actually realise that I'm away from my dear old Chennai.

But one thing that I have carried from home till here is Faith and Hope, which will certainly take me through tough times.

P.S: Mum, I know you'll read this, don't worry. I'm all fine here, jus wanted to let ppl know how things are here.

Buffalo....

Finally, landed up in this dumb place called buffalo (aka ERUMAI). Its a very small town, literally the size of Nungambakkam, T.Nagar and West Mambalam put together. That's d size of it.

Anyways, down to business- its been a over a month since I landed up here. It s nt really my kind of a place. Very small, very quiet. Not much ofactivity round here- except the univ though.

The univ- SUNY buffalo, fondlyknown as UB- well- its a nice cool place.

A huge campus- known as the north campus (That s where all my classes are). Lots of activity only in this part of buffalo, really. and one thing I noticed here was that I got to see a lot of Indian and Chinese faces rather than a lot of American faces. Anyways.

After getting all that used to just going downstairs to buy anything I need, walking more than half a kilometer to get even a chocolate seems.. ugh.. really. And after having lived on 2 of possibly the most busiest roads in Chennai, staying in a very quiet street in a very sleepy town doesnt appeal a lot to me. I do miss Chennai really, despite all the negatives that it may have, Chennai is home.

Hmmm.. food- yes- mum, if you are reading this, I miss that vathakozhambu a lot, though we made an attempt to make it, it doesn't come out that well. Im just yearning for some proper Indian food(at a very cheap rate). Anyways, we do have good food(by our standards of cooking though- which is by no means- abysmal)- Thank god. Ofcourse- Pizza's good and cheap by all means, so we do have pizza on a regular basis.

Transport- Guys- I'm sure whoever knows me only reads this blog, so Im sure you still remember how I look. I'm still the same size.lol. We have quite a distance to walk everyday, and that gives us enough to burn whatever we eat. We walk from home to the south campus, which is near home, catch the shuttle to north campus. For every place other than north campus- there s the bus (namma ooru ptc- athey than) and trains (to go to the main city- never been there yet). The buses are never crowded- cos everyone has atleast 1 car here. I guess the trains should look similiar to the ones shown in the movies here.

Entertainment- best entertainment- sleep. Well there s the downtown buffalo that one can go to for timepass, lots of shopping can be done at walmart, boulevard mall, etc. and there s a mokka theater called amherst here, that hardly anyone goes to. Most people at Buffalo tend to stay at home and relax rather than roam around. Damn- I miss Satyam, Pondy Bazar, etc.

Cimate- This place is really freaky with the climate. It was warm and sunny this morning( uncharectaristically) and its started raining when I started for classes. There's this line about Buffalo-"Don't like the weather? Come back in 5 minutes."

Biggest attraction- Obviously- Need I say anything at all. Common Knowledge. Niagara. Well, Buffalo's economy thrives on 2 things- UB and Niagara.

My opinion about Buffalo- Sucks, that too after coming from a big city like Chennai. But UB rocks absolutely.